Midgets win

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2013 at 11:30 AM

Putnam and Knox did battle with first place in the Tri-Rivers Conference on the line Tuesday night

Ryan Ronan @RyanRonan_KDE

EDINA, Mo. - After holding a double-digit lead for the majority of the game Putnam County found themselves only up one with 26 seconds to go, and Knox County having the ball after the Midgets lost it on a jump ball situation. The Eagles inbounded the ball and started to run a play head coach Zach Summers had just drawn up in the huddle. The problem was PC defended option one and option two.

With time running out and the Midget defense closing in, Lee Tague got caught under the basket and thought he saw a teammate breaking open, but he cut the other way and Knox turned the ball over with only 18 seconds to play.

Knox would turn the ball over again on their next possession and ran out of chances as they lost 70-65.

“I thought I saw something in their defense so I drew a play that I thought would work. They defended differently than I expected and the play broke down. That one is on me,” said Summers.

It was somewhat ironic that KC was done in by turnovers since PC turnovers are what helped them get back in the game. The Midgets turned it over five times in the fourth quarter alone, and were called for multiple traveling violations throughout the game.

However, Putnam did win and climbed even in the Tri-Rivers Conference standings.“We came out and did what we needed to offensively early on, but then when [Corey] Lewis got into foul trouble it that hurt us because he does so many things for our team. But plain and simple, the reason Knox was able to stick around is because we didn’t rebound like we needed to, and they got easy put-back opportunities. I take my hat off to them, they are a good team and it’s always hard to play at Knox County,” said Putnam County head coach Jamie Tipton.

The Midgets came out on fire, getting up and down the floor mainly due to KC turnovers and missed shots, PC led 16-8 after one and by as many as 12 early in the second quarter. Most of that was due to the play of junior point guard Cody Quint. Quint also was key in the Midgets closing out the game. After having a rough start to the fourth quarter with some turnovers and bad passes, Quint stepped up by breaking the KC press and knocking down free throws.

“He stepped up, I have been telling him all year, ‘you are the general’ you have to get us into our offense, and what happened tonight was that they played off of him trying to stop Deion and he took advantage of it. I guarantee you that 20 points is his career high,” said Tipton.

Quint saw his role increase due to Corey Lewis being in foul trouble from almost the opening minutes, Lewis would foul out with four and half minutes left in the game.

“We just really needed this win and we knew it was going to be tough playing in this environment. I know that those guys are seniors and I know that they want to make it four [conference titles] in a row and when Cory got into foul trouble I just did what we needed to get the win,” said Quint.

Tague played the whole game while battling a stomach virus that made it hard for him to keep anything down the previous 24 hours. Tague led all the Eagles with 24 points and was major catalyst in the comeback.

“I just went out and played as hard as I could for as long as I could, and we knew that the backside drive would be there and I started kind of slow, but me and coach went over that. We had people in the right spots and then the ball started going in, next time hopefully it will be enough to win,” said Tague

The loss was the Eagles first defeat in TRC play.

“They played hard enough to win, but we have said that at least six or seven times this year but we haven’t won yet and that’s the frustrating part. We need to get over that hump and beat a good team right now. We’re close but we haven’t done it. One good thing I saw tonight is that this loss hurt our guys,” said Summers.

After suffering a tough loss to North Shelby, the Midgets pulled even with the Eagles Tuesday night.

“North Shelby is a tough place to play, but in our minds that didn’t really matter because we knew we were going to have to beat Knox County twice to win the conference. We have it and we want it, we have won it outright the past couple years and these boys want it again. And now we have a good opportunity to do that when we play them at home,” said Tipton.Deion Hunt scored 24 to lead the Midgets. Royce Poore had 16 and Donovan Edwards added 10 to go with Tague’s 24.

These two teams meet again on Feb. 12, in Unionville, and that could very well be a do-or-die scenario for the TRC title. But before then KC will travel to Milan on Friday night to play the Wildcats and PC will play Newtown-Harris on Friday.

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